Tag: reproductive legislation

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Genetic mother of twins wins historic Irish surrogacy case

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Dublin CourtsThe genetic mother of twins born through a surrogate pregnancy has won her court battle to be declared the legal mother on the children’s birth certificates.

In this landmark case the genetic mother defeated the Irish government. In the past Ireland had refused the mother’s demands to be recorded as a parent on the children’s birth certs. The Irish State’s defense for their stance had been the 1937 constitution, which states that the woman who gives birth to the baby is recorded as the mother.

On Tuesday Dublin High Court Justice Henry Abbott said that these 1937 laws governing birth certificates and parentage needed to be updated to reflect the growing use of artificial insemination, embryo implantation, and other fertility techniques.

The genetic mother in question, whose identity is withheld under Irish law, had been declared medically unable to carry her child. Her sister volunteered to serve as a surrogate mother. Read full article.

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Courts split on contraception, cases plow forward

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contraception legislationThe cases brought against the Obama administration’s employer contraception coverage rule are largely marching forward, despite the White House’s recent attempt at compromise, the American Civil Liberties Union noted in an update Thursday.

Brigitte Amiri, an attorney with the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, told reporters more than 40 cases have been filed against the rule from for-profit and nonprofit groups that oppose having to pay for contraception on moral grounds. Some cases are traveling up to the appellate courts, where, she said, five decisions regarding temporary relief from the rule have been made so far. Three circuit courts have denied temporary relief to plaintiffs, and two have granted it.

When the administration rolls out its final rule regarding nonprofit organizations, more cases brought by the groups could be dismissed as they would be exempt from the coverage requirement.

The ACLU has filed amicus briefs in many cases in support of the contraception rule and the government. Read full article.

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When the Law Says a Parent Isn’t a Parent

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Reproductive battleIt is easy to interpret the popularity of a network television series like “Modern Family” as proof that we have mainstreamed the various and sweeping ways domestic life has reshaped itself over the past two decades. A nation of squares would not embrace a comedy about a badly dressed, middle-aged gay couple raising an adopted Vietnamese baby, we tell ourselves, no matter what they might say in Copenhagen or Berlin.

Gay rights are moving forward; single women now account for 41 percent of all births. Americans build caring families with lovers, friends and neighbors; from one-night stands and anonymous providers of genetic material. And yet, even in a place as progressive as New York, the legal system has been slow to synchronize to these altered realities.

It is hard to imagine anyone experiencing this more viscerally right now than a man named Jonathan Sporn, a 54-year-old pharmaceuticals executive living on the Upper West Side, who in a sense has fallen prey to a system that excessively privileges the conventional family models from which there seems to be a growing exodus. Read full article.

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Birth Control Rule Altered to Allay Religious Objections

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WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Friday proposed yet another compromise to address strenuous objections from religious organizations about a policy requiring health insurance plans to provide free contraceptives, but the change did not end the political furor or legal fight over the issue.

The proposal could expand the number of groups that do not need to pay directly for birth control coverage, encompassing not only churches and other religious organizations, but also some religiously affiliated hospitals, universities and social service agencies. Health insurance companies would pay for the coverage.

The latest proposed change is the third in the last 15 months, all announced on Fridays, as President Obama has struggled to balance women’s rights, health care and religious liberty. Legal experts said the fight could end up in the Supreme Court. Read full article.

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Paul Ryan Cosponsors New Fetal Personhood Bill

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Despite the deep unpopularity of fetal personhood bills in 2012, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has again decided to cosponsorthe Sanctity of Human Life Act, a bill that gives full legal rights to human zygotes from the moment of fertilization.

Ryan, who reportedly has 2016 presidential ambitions, had to de-emphasize his opposition to abortion without exceptions during the 2012 election to align his position with presidential candidate Mitt Romney. But this year, Ryan has been tapped as a keynote speaker for the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List’s sixth annual Campaign for Life Gala, and he is re-upping his support for the most extreme anti-abortion legislation in the country.

The personhood bill, first introduced in 2011 by Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) and reintroduced by Broun last week, specifies that a “one-celled human embryo,” even before it implants in the uterus to create a pregnancy, should be granted “all the legal and constitutional attributes and privileges of personhood.” Similar legislation has been rejected by voters in multiple states, including the socially conservative Mississippi, because legal experts have pointed out that it could outlaw some forms of birth control and in vitro fertilization as well as criminalize abortion at all stages. Read full article.

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Court allows patenting of stem cell technologies

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A court in Germany has given a “glimmer of hope” to inventors hoping to patent human embryonic stem cell technologies in Europe.

In interpreting a landmark decision by the European Court of Justice, the German Federal Court of Justice has ruled that technologies involving cells derived from human embryonic stem cells that do not directly involve the destruction of human embryos can be patented.

The court upheld a patent awarded to University of Bonn professor Oliver Brustle, which had been disputed in a legal challenge by Greenpeace under the EU Biotechnology Directive, which bans the use of human embryos for industrial and commercial purposes.

In a decision in October 2011, the European Court of Justice ruled that technologies that have at any stage involved the destruction of a human embryo could not be patented, leading stem cell researchers to fear that translational research in Europe might suffer. There is thought to be no similar restriction on patenting outside Europe.

However, in interpreting this ruling on 27 November 2012, the German court determined that in vitrocells derived from the blastocyst stage of embryo development did not themselves have the capability to develop into people, and therefore did not count as human embryos. Read full article.

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Moscow bankrolls fertilization treatment

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Starting in 2013, in vitro fertilization (IVF) patients will receive free treatment as part of the basic compulsory health insurance program (CHI). Izvestia was informed of this decision by Moscow’s deputy mayor for social issues, Leonid Pechatnikov. In this way, Muscovites will be able to resolve their fertility problems for free, with the option of undergoing treatment in commercial clinics that are covered by Moscow’s CHI system.

According to Pechatnikov, in Moscow there are currently around 2,500 couples on the waiting list for IVF treatment in 2013. Each round of IVF treatment will require 106,000 rubles ($3,500) from the budget; in private clinics, this figure varies from 100,000 to 250,000 rubles.

The vice mayor was not able to specify the exact amount of budgetary funds that would be put toward IVF treatment. He says that treatments will only be partially financed by the fund, and some of the cost will be covered by the Moscow budget. Read full article.

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Who’s the Mother in Kansas?

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Angie Bauer and Jennifer Schreiner had been together for eight years. They had raised several adopted and foster kids. But they wanted a baby of their own. They tried a sperm bank, but their doctor, according to Bauer, refused to sign a document saying they were fit to raise a child. So they posted an ad on Craigslist.

William Marotta, a fellow foster parent, answered the ad. He and his wife exchanged emails with the couple and visited their home. He wanted to be sure that the child would be well cared for. In March 2009, he donated his sperm, waived compensation, and signed a contract renouncing parental rights and responsibilities. Schreiner carried the pregnancy. Nine months later, she and Bauer had their baby girl. Read full article.

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Scientists Relieved As Supreme Court Passes Over Case Against Embryonic Stem Cell Research

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In light of yesterday’s refusal by the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a case that could have prohibited further government funding of embryonic stem cell research on ethical grounds, a sigh of relief was expressed by many leaders in the field.

Doug Melton, co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute , said, “We couldn’t be happier that this frivolous, but at the same time potentially devastating distraction is behind us, and we can once again focus all our attention on advancing all forms of stem cell science, including research using embryonic stem cells – which are the gold standard against which we measure other types.”

Robert Lanza, chief science officer for Advanced Cell Technology: “We’re obviously delighted with the Supreme Court’s decision,” he told me in an email. “However, it’s a shame it took this long to put this lawsuit to rest, not to mention the potentially life-saving research it held up or slowed in the process.”

Advanced Cell had a pretty good year from a scientific perspective.

The California-based company’s clinical trials for the treatment of Stargardt Disease with embryonic stem (ES) cells have proceeded without any safety issues. Plans to derive blood platelets from reprogrammed, or induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells), have also been submitted to the FDA for approval. Read full article.

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Congress Approves Year Long Doc Fix in Fiscal Cliff Deal

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Late New Year’s Day, the U.S. House of Representatives followed the Senate’s lead and voted to approve the American Taxpayer Relief Act, averting the so called fiscal cliff. Included in the legislation is a provision to stop a scheduled 26.5% payment cut in Medicare physician payments. However, the doc fix, as it is referred to, will expire at the end of 2013. The reduction for doctors comes from a payment formula in a 1997 deficit reduction law which provided doctors with modest pay increases in the early years, but which resulted in huge cuts in subsequent years. Congress has staved off the scheduled cuts with short term fixes for several years, but physicians’ groups, including ASRM, have been seeking a permanent solution to the formula. Read full article.